Professor Richard Susskind OBE is the world’s most cited author on the future of legal services. He is President of the Society for Computers and Law, Chair of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Internet Institute, and, since 1998, has been Technology Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales. The Founder of Remote Courts Worldwide (www.remotecourts.org), he chaired the Online Dispute Resolution Advisory Group of the Civil Justice Council in England and Wales (2014-2015) whose proposals on online courts have been adopted as judicial and government policy. Richard’s work has been translated into 18 languages and he has been invited to speak in over 60 countries. He has written numerous books, including The Future of the Law (1996), Transforming the Law (2000), The End of Lawyers? (2008), The Future of the Professions (2015, with D Susskind) Tomorrow’s Lawyers (2013, 2017), and Online Courts and the Future of Justice (2019). In the 1980s, he wrote his doctorate on artificial intelligence and the law at Balliol College, Oxford. He holds professorships at Oxford University, UCL, Gresham College, and Strathclyde University. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the British Computer Society, and an Honorary Bencher at Gray’s Inn, he was awarded an OBE in 2000.

Shannon Salter is the Chair of the Civil Resolution Tribunal, Canada’s first online tribunal resolving small claims, condominium disputes, and motor vehicle accident disputes. She is also an adjunct professor at the UBC Allard School of Law, teaching administrative law and legal ethics and professional regulation. She earned her BA and LLB from UBC, and her LLM from the University of Toronto. Ms. Salter was a BC Supreme Court judicial law clerk before practicing civil litigation at a large Vancouver firm. She has served as a vice chair of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal, vice president of the BC Council of Administrative Tribunals, and on the College of Registered Nurses of BC. Ms. Salter is currently a director of the BC Financial Services Authority, a Law Society of British Columbia disciplinary hearing panel member, board member of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII), and a director of Lexum. She is a co-author of the BC Administrative Decision Maker’s Manual, as well as a number of legal journal articles. In 2017, Ms. Salter was named one of the 25 Top Most Influential Lawyers in Canada, and was previously recognized as one of Canada’s New Law Pioneers by the Canadian Bar Association and an Access to Justice All-Star by the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSLAP). She received the Adam Albright award for outstanding teaching by an adjunct professor in 2016. Ms. Salter is also a fellow of the National Centre for Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts and a visiting professor at the Sir Zelman Cowan Centre in Victoria University in Melbourne. Ms. Salter is a frequent speaker at international conferences on online dispute resolution, administrative law, legal education, and the future of law and technology.

Michael Strauss was appointed General Counsel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) effective January 2020. In that role, Mr Strauss serves on the Executive Committee and various other committees of the Bank.
Mr Strauss joined EBRD from private practice as a Partner at the Washington-based law firm Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP. Prior to this, he represented the United States on the Board of the Asian Development Bank and served as a Senior Advisor covering international finance at the US Treasury. He has worked as a legal counsel in both the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, primarily focused on sovereign debt, institutional governance, and development in Francophone Africa. He began his legal career in capital markets, mergers & acquisitions, and privatizations in the London and Paris offices of the law firm Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP.
Mr Strauss is a US national. He has a JD from Stanford Law School, a Master’s from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy (where he has also taught law as an adjunct professor), and a BA from Williams College. He is admitted to the Bar in New York and Washington, DC.

Mr. Klaus Decker is a Senior Public Sector Specialist working at the World Bank in Washington since 2002. As a member of the Governance Global Practice, he supports justice sector reform initiatives worldwide with a focus on the Middle East and Northern Africa. He is currently the chair of the World Bank’s Justice and Development Community of Practice. He has tasked managed numerous World Bank investment lending operations supporting justice sector reform, primarily in Europe and Central Asia. He has led World Bank technical assistance initiatives to justice sector institutions across a range of specific technical topics in different parts of the world. He has also led teams delivering justice sector analytical work to clients.
Mr. Decker is a French and German trained lawyer by background with an LL.M. in European Law. He graduated from Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany and Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France. Prior to joining the World Bank, he worked as a research associate at the Chair for Public International Law, European Law and Comparative Public Law in Saarbrücken and taught courses on European integration and legal translation.

Olena Kibenko is a Judge of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. Olena holds a PhD in Law from Yaroslav the Wise National Law Academy of Ukraine. Prior to joining the judiciary in 2017, she spent over 25 years in the academia and over 15 years in private legal practice, focusing on commercial and corporate law. Olena was a Senior Partner at the leading national law firm – “ILF- Inyurpolis” between 2002-2011 and later started her own practice as a Managing Partner of the law firm "Kibenko, Onika and Partners". As a professor of law, Olena spent 1994-2011 teaching at the Department of Business and International Private Law (Commercial Law) of Yaroslav the Wise National Law Academy of Ukraine. Between 2011 and 2017 she taught at the Department of Civil Law of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. Olena is an author of over 150 scientific and practice-oriented publications, seven textbooks and five monographs.

Having lived and studied in different countries, Anett has learned to appreciate living in a digital society. Anett believes that all processes and structures of public services should be accessible and simple for every single citizen. Based on her academic background in political science, Anett focuses on enhancing good cooperation between the public and private sector to create a comprehensive and supportive environment. Her goal as a Digital Transformation Adviser at the e-Estonia Briefing Centre is to explain the Estonian digitalisation experience and thus inspire leaders and decision-makers alike to create a better tomorrow.

Before becoming Director of the Legal Transition Programme, which is the EBRD’s initiative to help its countries of operations upgrade their legal framework for business, Michel worked for almost three years as counsel in the banking operations section. There he was responsible for legal aspects of various investments of the Bank, with a particular focus on SME financing.
Michel has practiced as a commercial lawyer in Geneva, Moscow and London. While in private practice, Michel acted as Swiss correspondent for various legal publications and has also published a number of articles on Swiss and Russian legal matters. Michel, who is a Swiss national, received his Masters Degree in Law from the University of California at Berkeley and also was a visiting scholar at Moscow State University.

Moderator

Veronica Baradautanu, is a Principal Counsel, in the Legal Transition Team, in the legal department of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and is based in London. Veronica leads the Dispute Resolution and Enforcement area within the team, delivering technical assistance projects on court reform, trainings for judges, mediation reform and bailiff service reform. Her projects cover various jurisdictions, including Armenia, Moldova, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Serbia, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and other countries of EBRD operations. Veronica is a qualified New York Attorney and has an LLM from the University of Connecticut School of Law, USA. Before joining the EBRD she worked in the policy department of the Moldovan National Commission for Financial Markets and practiced as a lawyer within a leading Moldovan law firm. Veronica also worked as an International Expert on World Bank, EBRD and IFC technical assistance projects in the areas of insolvency, secured transactions, judiciary, enforcement regimes, company law and corporate governance of banks.